Autumn antics

Last weekend I was a little more than a little sleep deprived due to some hectic night shifts/kid shifts. At one point the kids had emptied the freezer of ALL of the ice cubes. They then stuffed them in Eli's socks and hung them all over the house....something about an ice age...and i was so tired that it almost made sense. Even the wooden sword and large stuffed monkey...
Tree full of goofballs!
Last night the kids and I decorated the front yard for Halloween, complete with "cobwebs" and pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.

So, yesterday, we visited Stoneycreek Farm to find the perfect pumpkin. We took a hayride down to the punkin patch where my own little punkins found the LARGEST pumpkins they could for their mama to drag back to the wagon. But look how happy they are!
Kiddos jumping on the giant bouncy pillow at the pumpkin patch. I still couldn't get em to sleep before 9!
Such a beautiful fall day!
Ava with her perfect pumpkin!
Me and my favorite people on the pumpkin hayride! Afterwards we went to pick out Halloween costumes. My dragon and sugar plum fairy are counting the days until Halloween!

So, never mind that the day started rough (I was forced to return our kitty to my parents house after she destroyed one too many curtains, nibbled my toes while I slept, and made my house smell like the devil's armpit. I loaded both kids and cat into the car, running late as usual, and headed to Ava's school. The cat felt that the best place for her to ride was right in front of the steering wheel like an evil little hood ornament. I kept pushing her aside so that I could see and she would go sliding down the dashboard, then wobble back down right in front of the steering wheel. Amazingly we made it to the school in one piece. Cat had attached herself to Ava's backpack, which I had accidentally buckled into Eli's seat belt. Foot hooked under the dashboard as I tried to twist myself into the backseat in a move that would make a Pilate's instructor cringe, I tried to detach the backpack, cat, and Ava from each other. Eli sneezed...and it was a "good" one. He screams for a tissue which, of course, I don't have. In a moment of pure desperation, I ripped off his shoe, pulled off his sock and hand it to him. Wipe. Holding down cat and encouraging Ava to bolt out of the car while further contorting into the backseat to keep cat at bay. Car behind me is honking. Cat has claws set into Ava's backpack. She jumps out of the car. There is a brief tug of war between her an the cat over the backpack which she wins. On the drive to my parent's house, the cat resumes her "hood ornament" position. I dropped her off, left a "Dear Oscar" note, and tried not to squeal my tires and laugh maniacally as I drove away. Our next pet will most likely be a sea monkey or imaginary unicorn. Can't decide.)...the day ended great...except for Eli overflowing the toilet in the carpeted bathroom. Why anyone would put carpet in a bathroom is beyond me...